Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction. No monetary profit has been gained from its production and no copyright infringement is intended. The Star Wars characters and events used in this fan fiction are the property of George Lucas. This fanfic may not be republished in any way, shape or form without the consent of the author. Comments, suggestions and any grammatical errors found may be brought to the attention of the author at: [email protected]

Long, long ago, there was a time when all the galaxy was at peace, when the Force freely flowed between all that lived, when the light of goodness shone brightly upon all the worlds where the sentient beings walked. All was well then: but Force knows an end must come of all such idylls. For in peace the galaxy fell to complacency, ceasing to be watchful, taking the light for granted until they barely saw how faint it had grown.

There arose a disturbance in the Force. One grown to great power in darkness made war against the light; from the bosom of the Force he wooed even the mighty Walker of Skies. An evil empire smothered the sleeping republic, and the strength of the Jedi faltered before the dark one's dread power. The age fell to darkness.

Then the Force called upon its servants, those few in whom the light yet shone. Sky-Princess, Son of Suns, the Trickster, all those divinities that inhabit the sacred realm of the Center, went forth in service of the Force to do battle against the evil one.

Yet was it not enough. All the gods in the galaxy could not overcome the dark Sith who threatened to overthrow the sacred realm and usurp the Force's power. "Who is able to defeat this mighty enemy?" said the Force. "All the gods of the Center fight him, yet he threatens us still. Where shall we seek, to find the one who can carry the victory? Since no gods remain unsent, we must seek among the mortals."

And so it was. The Force sought far and wide throughout the galaxy, and at last it called to itself one of the sons of men, a lowly trader called Wedge, of the house and lineage of Antilles. "Go forth," said the Force, "and vanquish the enemy who threatens the very Center of the galaxy."

"O Force, I hear and obey," answered this Wedge, "but how am I to vanquish him? You know that I am a man of humble estate, without father or mother, without great wealth, without a homeland-for the land of my birth has now fallen to the enemy. Yet all that I am is yours."

And the Force answered, "It is enough. We will provide the means through which you shall conquer. Only go forth to battle, and the way will present itself."

So Wedge set out, as the Force had commanded, to join the forces of the light in battle against the evil one. He came to the place where the battle was raging, and one of the gods met him. "I have come to fight for the light," said Wedge.

"What can you, a mere mortal, hope to do against our enemy?" sneered the god, a rather impertinent young divinity who had dwelt but a short time in the sacred Center and knew little of the battle between darkness and light.

"Yet the Force sends me," answered Wedge. "It is for me to fight."

So the god grudgingly accepted the newly arrived warrior into the forces of the light. "Now," thought Wedge, "I shall be sent to the front lines, and when I find the means that the Force has provided me, I shall vanquish the enemy." But he was not sent to the front lines. They sent him to a place of ornate grandeur and ancient beauty, and they dressed him in robes of state. "Whence come these?" cried Wedge. "How can I fight, dressed in such a manner?"

"It is not for you to fight as the great heroes do," answered the goddess who was attending him, "as the Son of Suns and the other gods do. You, who are mortal, are to fight only with the weapon of your words."

Then he knew that the place to which they had sent him was the Senate from whence the evil one's decrees issued forth, and his robes were those of a Senator, and as a diplomat he was to fight against the enemy with his words. "Is this the means by which I shall be victorious?" wondered Wedge. And he hoped that in this guise of diplomacy he might fulfill the Force's command; but yet he wondered at it, for the robes were strange and unpleasant to him, and in the warfare of words he was wholly untrained.

Then came a day that he found himself in the Senate chamber, gathered with all the other Senators to hear the decrees of the evil one. "Surely," thought Wedge, "now is the time for me to act, and if these robes are the means to victory, I shall have the victory today." So he set himself to speak. But ever as he spoke, the faces of the Senators passed from astonishment, to amusement, to anger, and the more he spoke, the more their anger grew. At last Wedge became aware of himself and knew that he was speaking only nonsense, as if in that place and in that guise where speech was the supreme weapon, he had lost all power of speech. In the end the evil one himself cast Wedge away from the place, out into the void of the galaxy.

Amazed at this defeat, Wedge recalled the words of the Force. "I am promised victory, and I am promised the means to victory," said he. "It can only be that words are not the means that the Force promised. I must return to the battle, then, and fight some other way. When I find the means to victory, I shall conquer."

So he picked himself up and set out again for the battlefield. When he came again to the place where the forces of light struggled against the darkness, again a god met him, though not the one who had met him before.

"I come to join the fight against the darkness," said Wedge.

"Well," said the god, a far more kindly and gracious spirit than the one Wedge had first encountered, "then join it you shall. I am certain that we shall make a hero of you, a defender of peace and justice." And he took the young warrior, and dressed him in tunic and trousers and a long, full cloak, the apparel of a Jedi. Then the god placed in Wedge's hands the weapon of a Jedi, the lightsaber, fair symbol of a thousand generations of justice and wisdom. And he sent the newly-made Jedi knight forth to battle, armed and accoutered like one of those servants of the Force who, through it, are the guardians of the galaxy.

With the gleaming saber, Wedge fell upon the enemy ranks, cutting down the denizens of evil left and right. His confidence grew; "surely," thought he, "this is the weapon the Force promised, whereby I shall smite the evil one. Now my victory is at hand!" And so he pressed his way through the battle, to the place where the evil one himself was fighting. Soldiers of the light, both gods and mere mortals, struggled against him there. Many had fallen already, and the battleground around the great enemy was clothed in Jedi robes to match those Wedge now wore, for the wicked one ever took greatest delight in destroying those warriors who came at him dressed in such a fashion.

"Force with us!" cried Wedge, and raised his lightsaber to attack the evil one. But the attack was halted before it could begin; bolts of dark lightning flew like twisted laughter from the enemy's fingertips, and so ended Wedge's time as a Jedi.

When he came to himself, he was again in the void, and of the lightsaber and the Jedi robes there was no sign. For a time a heavy sorrow pressed upon Wedge: "I have failed the Force!" he cried. "I was given the weapons of victory, yet twice I have failed to win the victory. I am no more a Jedi than I am a diplomat. The Force touches me, but I have not the power to touch the Force." But, thinking on this at greater length, he remembered again the Force's promise. At last he determined that there was nothing to be done but to return to the battle, "For," said he, "it cannot be that I shall fail in the end, since the Force has said I shall conquer. I have only to find the means to victory, and I shall be victorious."

So he made his way once more toward the battlefield. Yet another god met him there, and would have sent him away, saying, "The battle grows grim, and heavy are the losses for the light. I would not have yet another mortal needlessly sacrificed to the evil one's ambition. Leave the battle to the gods of the Center."

But Wedge would not be deterred. "I will fight for the Force," said he. "I will have the victory."

The god at last gave in to the stubborn young warrior. "Yet I do not think it will go well with you," said the divinity. "If you insist on fighting, you will have to fight in the ranks of the pilots. You might as well kill yourself now, for there is little chance of your returning from the battles in which a pilot must fight. The risk is great."

"Leave that to the Force," Wedge answered.

So the god led him away to a place set aside for the pilots. There he presented to Wedge the weapon with which he was to fight: the ship bearing death in its foils, the chariot of gods, the hunter of the sky: the X-wing.

Wedge set himself within the ship and brought it into flight. And as he soared high above the battlefield, he thought: "Now at last, let the promise of the Force come to pass; by means of this ship, let me overcome the enemy!" For the ship seemed as familiar to him as the diplomat's robes had seemed foreign, and infinitely more powerful in his hands were the controls of its lasers than the lightsaber could ever have been.

And he came to a place where the great god, the Son of Suns, struggled in dire combat against the wicked one and his servant, the fallen Walker of Skies, that ancient deity whom some legends name father to the one called Son of Suns. And the battle went hard against the light's forces in that place, for the Son of Suns fought against the enemy in his very stronghold, a fortress vast and impenetrable.

But the Son of Suns turned the power of the light upon those two creatures of the dark; and the one could not bear it; and the other, in the face of the light, underwent a metamorphosis; for that one had not always been dark, and now began to look back toward the light he had once abandoned.

And as the battle raged thus both within and without the fortress, Wedge in the X-wing flew into the fortress itself, discovering its very secrets, making his way through its labyrinthine passages to the heart of the evil place. There at last he fired the weapons of his mighty ship, striking such a blow that the fortress could not stand against him. Wedge flew back out again, and the dark fortress fell to ruins, even as the evil one himself fell to the Son of Suns and the Walker of Skies.

Then was there great rejoicing among the servants of the Force, for the evil empire was defeated and the light could again shine as before upon all the worlds where the sentient beings walked. Wedge, having found the means to victory, was hailed as a hero. And then the Force spoke:

"Wedge, mighty in battle, who never doubted the promise of the Force nor despaired of victory even when defeat was all you knew: enter now the Center, for we make you, who were but a mortal, a god no less than all who dwell in that sacred realm. You shall be called the True Animist Warrior God, and through your valor the light shall ever be victorious. And we shall set your ship, the great hunter of the sky, the X-wing by which you found the means to victory, in the skies for a symbol of your might."

So Wedge was deified and joined the ranks of the gods of the Center, and the ship of his victory was placed in the sky, a constellation by which the servants of the Force should know the power of the True Animist Warrior God. And some, in the ages that followed, said of this constellation that it was not the ship but the god himself, while others said it was some other great hero, so that in our days the Hunter of the Sky is called sometimes just the Hunter, or the Giant, or Orion. But still the stars trace the shape of an X-wing flying into battle, and so the Hunter of the Sky remains forever the sign of Wedge, the True Animist Warrior God.

5/19/2001 Rebecca J. Bush [email protected]

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